In 2016, Anastasia Gutkevich recorded a video in Russia to apply to Start-Up Chile. She spent two minutes in front of the camera, alone, speaking in English because she did not yet speak Spanish. Behind her stood 40 years of research conducted by her parents in Siberia on probiotic bacteria that survive freezing temperatures.
She was accepted. She crossed the globe with her husband, her daughter, and a suitcase full of research. That was how Bifidice began.
An accelerator pitch needs to accomplish that in just a few minutes. It must ensure that someone reviewing hundreds of applications immediately grasps what your company does, why your team has what it takes to pull it off, and what you will achieve during the program. In this article, you will learn how this differs from an investor pitch, what Start-Up Chile and Y Combinator explicitly state about their criteria, how to demonstrate progress with minimal traction, common pitfalls to avoid, and a checklist for your application.
I served as CEO of Start-Up Chile. Alongside our team, we evaluated thousands of pitches and learned to spot within seconds when a story worked and when it needed serious work. What I recommend here draws from the Pitch de Película framework. The program-specific criteria reflect what each accelerator publicly discloses.
Investors and Accelerators Make Different Decisions
An investor decides whether to inject capital in exchange for equity, evaluating financial returns. An accelerator decides whether to grant you a spot in a cohort running several months—complete with mentorship, a network, and, in many cases, funding.
Terms also vary widely by program. Start-Up Chile is CORFO's public accelerator, offering equity-free matching grants. Y Combinator invests capital in exchange for equity. It pays to read the guidelines thoroughly before writing a single word.
In practice, this shifts the focal point of your pitch. When pitching a fund, your ask is a specific dollar amount and how it will be spent. When pitching an accelerator, your ask is a seat in the program, and what closes the deal is what you will achieve while there. Concrete milestones achieved by demo day carry far more weight than a ten-year grand vision.
What Start-Up Chile and Y Combinator Publish
Every program runs its own distinct process. Here is what each discloses publicly, without assuming they operate the same way.
Start-Up Chile structures its offering across three stage-based programs. Build, a pre-acceleration track for startups moving from a validated concept to an early prototype. Ignite, an acceleration track for startups with a functional product seeking product-market fit. Growth, a scale-up track for expanding companies. In its brochure, the accelerator highlights four core criteria: technological foundation, innovation, scalability, and impact. It also notes that at least half of the startups selected for Build must be female-led.
Y Combinator requires a one-minute video as part of the application. On its website, YC specifies that the video should feature only the founders talking, that all co-founders must appear, that it is not the place for a product demo or promotional clip, and that founders should never read from a script. They want to hear how you communicate.
Neither program publishes a secret formula you can copy-paste. What you can prepare, however, is your story.
The Team Matters More When the Idea Is Still Fragile
In early stages, the idea might pivot. The market might shift. The team is what endures.
I propose four superpowers to highlight in your team slide: the one who lived the problem firsthand, the one who can build what others only imagine, the one who holds the keys to the market, and the one who turns chaos into scalable systems. In an application, every person you name should bring one of these powers, backed by concrete evidence: years in the industry, something they previously built, or the problem they personally endured.
Complementarity shines through when team members cover distinct fronts. Execution ability shows when you can highlight what you shipped over the past few weeks.
Showing Learning Velocity
Accelerators bet on teams that learn fast. The clearest way to prove this is sharing what you originally believed, what you tested, and what you changed.
Cecilia Membrado, before writing a single line of code for her platform, put together a basic website selling consignment clothes from her friends to see if people would buy second-hand clothing online. That was the birth of Renová tu Vestidor. SimpliRoute led with the exact same opening question for five years, even as their metrics changed dramatically in every presentation.
A sentence like "In March, we believed our ideal customer was X; we ran 40 interviews and discovered that the actual buyer is Y" speaks louder than three paragraphs of high-minded vision.
Problem, Solution, and Validation in an Application
Komal Dadlani applied to Start-Up Chile with Lab4U by sharing a student frustration. Her university science labs lacked basic equipment—even though she studied at a premier institution in the capital. Then she presented what they had: a working prototype and an early pilot getting underway.
That showcases three elements every application requires: a villain with a face (which, in her case, was herself standing in an empty lab), a tangible solution (even if early), and verifiable progress. I unpack the concept of the villain in detail in chapter 4 of the book.
If your application still reads like a technical spec sheet, in Pitch de Película I walk you block by block from the villain to the ask, featuring real-world examples from Start-Up Chile alumni.
How to Show Progress with Little Traction
When you have minimal traction, your strongest evidence is proving you understand the problem better than anyone else. I call this stage the pre-revenue foundation: customer discovery interviews, confirmed pain points, willingness to pay, and returning users.
An example from the book—a microcredit fintech—illustrates this approach: how many interviews were conducted, across how many cities, what percentage validated the core problem, and what percentage committed to paying for a solution. Four deeply committed, recurring users in a Build application carry more weight than an aggressive growth forecast.
Tailoring Your Story to Each Program
I recommend tailoring your core company one-liner to your current stage. At the idea stage, focus on the problem. With a working product, focus on the solution. With traction, focus on results. At scale, focus on the vision.
This progression aligns closely with stage-based accelerator tracks. An application to Build can focus heavily on the problem and early concept validation. An application to Ignite can focus on a functional solution and early traction. Growth applications should center on concrete metrics and expansion. This is my framework, drawn from the book, rather than an official rubric published by Start-Up Chile.
For Y Combinator, the one-minute video rewards something slightly different: founders explaining naturally what they build and why they are the right people to build it. Your one-liner needs to roll off your tongue without reading notes.
Common Mistakes in Applications and Interviews
Technical jargon. "A B2B platform that aggregates retail demand through last-mile technology" was the very first sentence written by María Fernanda Herrera, the protagonist of the Pitch de Película story. No one outside her startup understood what it meant.
Unbacked promises. "Once the model is finalized, adoption will be exponential" translates directly to "trust me."
The exhaustive org chart. Listing eight people with corporate titles and zero superpowers.
Reading from a script. Y Combinator explicitly forbids this for its video. Interviewers immediately spot when someone is reciting.
False modesty. "Perhaps we could grow a little bit" might sound polite at a family dinner, but it sounds like a lack of conviction to a selection committee.
Sample Answers for the Interview
While interview questions vary by program, four questions surface in nearly every selection process. These sample answers feature Origen, María Fernanda's startup.
What does your startup do? "We connect corner stores with wholesale suppliers so shopkeepers pay fair prices."
Why your team? "I grew up behind the counter of my father's corner grocery store, which was forced to close when I was 16. My co-founder brings 15 years of relationships with wholesale distributors. Our CTO previously built the inventory system for a national supermarket chain."
What have you learned over the past few months? "We originally assumed store owners bought strictly based on price. After working closely with four shops, we discovered they stay because our pricing improves month over month."
What will you achieve during the program? "Scale from 4 to 50 corner stores in one district and validate our three-month retention rate."
Checklist for Your Application
- You have read the full application guidelines and know which program tier fits your stage.
- You have a one-sentence pitch that anyone can repeat.
- Your problem features a clear protagonist, a specific moment, and a measurable consequence.
- You can demonstrate your solution through a prototype, mockup, or user flow walkthrough.
- You provide evidence appropriate to your stage, even if limited to customer interviews or early users.
- Every team member has a defined superpower backed by a verifiable fact.
- You clearly documented what you learned and adjusted over recent months.
- You set concrete, measurable milestones for the end of the program.
- If a video is required, you recorded it using bullet points without reading a script.
- Someone unfamiliar with your business read your application and immediately understood what you do.
Before hitting submit, evaluate your pitch with our free diagnostic tool: How convincing is your pitch?
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I apply to Start-Up Chile?
Open calls are posted on the Start-Up Chile and CORFO websites. Each call details requirements, deadlines, and the specific track—Build, Ignite, or Growth—depending on your startup's stage.
What does Y Combinator look for in the application video?
A one-minute video featuring all co-founders speaking naturally, without product demos, promotional clips, or reading from a script.
Do I need traction to get into an accelerator?
It depends on the program. Early-stage tracks accept startups with a validated concept or prototype. At that stage, your traction consists of user interviews, pilot programs, or initial organic users.
Is pitching an accelerator the same as pitching an investor?
They share the same core structure, but the emphasis differs. Accelerators place far more weight on team dynamics, learning velocity, and what you will accomplish during the cohort.
Your Application as the Opening Scene
An accelerator pitch showcases a team that understands its problem, is actively solving it, and learns at high velocity. Anastasia proved that in two minutes—in a language that was not her own.
This week, write your core one-liner and craft your answers to the four standard interview questions.
Pitch de Película gives you the complete methodology to turn your application into an unforgettable story, featuring all nine blocks and Origen's final pitch deck as a benchmark for your own.